The present invention relates to compound gear assemblies, and more particularly to a method of joining two gears to form a compound gear assembly, as an alternative to splining, which is more flexible and less expensive to manufacture. 
Compound gear assemblies, as known in the prior art, consist of two or more gears splined to one another. The compound gear assembly is coupled to input and output gears. In one known arrangement, a first gear includes a splined nose. The first gear includes teeth that are finish ground prior to assembly with a second gear. A second gear includes an inner diameter that is splined to interfit with the nose of the first gear in a press fit relationship. The second gear includes teeth that are rough machined prior to assembly but must be finish ground after assembly to ensure alignment with the first gear. In this manner, the first and second gears are arranged concentrically with one another to ensure desired meshing between the first and second gears and the input and output gears to which they are coupled. 
To ensure desired alignment between the first and second gears, the prior art method of joining gears involves expensive grinding in that one gear must be precision ground after assembly to the other gear to ensure proper alignment. Furthermore, if a press fit is required, then the splines must also be finished ground prior to assembly. In addition, the commonly used spline method results in a very rigid gear assembly that does not allow self alignment between the two gears. More specifically, the rigidity of the gear assembly does not allow for any relative movement between the first and second gears in relation to the input and output gears with which they mesh.  
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide a method of gear assembly which provides an assembly that is flexible enough to be self aligning and to allow the gears to be manufactured independently of one another. 